


Minutes

by Taciturnus



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Explosions, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Whump, in which the author has no idea what they're doing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 06:00:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13541226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taciturnus/pseuds/Taciturnus
Summary: Don shelters Charlie from an explosion. It takes a little while for Charlie to catch up.For the January monthly whump challenge.





	Minutes

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies ahead of time for the complete and utter mess ahead of you. I have a hard time writing actions and emotions and...pretty much everything a good fanfic needs. (honestly just leave now, don't even bother)
> 
> Prompt: Write a scene where your whumpee is being rushed into the ER on a gurney, face pale with blood loss and/or fever but their cheeks are flushed as their eyes are half lidded and they gasp into an oxygen mask.

Charlie hadn’t registered the sound for what it was at first, lost as he was in his calculations. 

The tackle and subsequent impact with the ground did little for his situational awareness.

  _Great, the chemistry class blew something up again,_ he thought, watching singed papers floating down through the smoke as a loud ringing noise – _alarm?_ – began to filter through his surprise.

 _Wait. Singed papers? Smoke? Just what were they doing in that class?_ He slowly attempted to sit up, head aching from more than just the physical blow. A weight across his lower body hindered his progress, and he absentmindedly pushed it to one side. The sight of the newly widened doorframe momentarily took him by surprise.

_Nothing in a freshman chemistry class would have caused that much damage to a room on the floor above it without also leaving a massive hole in said floor. So what –_

_The case. The bomber. They targeted CalSci._ Charlie’s mind clunked back into whirring motion, the myriad details of Don’s newest case – a serial bomber with little to no apparent target pattern – shuffling and resorting themselves until the sudden presence of a hand on his shoulder jolted him out of his thoughts. He focused on the face hovering in front of him and vaguely wondered why the ringing was loud enough to block Colby’s words from his ears.

“Colby, what – what are you – why are you here?” Charlie watched through a haze of confusion as Colby glanced at him, an almost panicked look in the agent’s eyes, before twisting as if to talk to someone behind him. The hand vanished from his shoulder and Colby’s face was replaced with Megan’s concerned expression, as a form he belatedly recognized as David’s hovered near them with a phone at his ear.

 “Megan.” Worry began to tug at his gut as he stretched – _ouch, not good_ – to look around Megan’s shoulder. “Where’s Don?” The flickering glance she inadvertently directed to the ground next to him did nothing to comfort him; he followed her gaze down to a pair of legs, and followed them up to a strangely rumpled jacket, suddenly remembering the tackle that had landed him on the ground in the first place.

_Don._

* * *

 

Charlie watched the paramedics move around his brother while the relatively steady sound of the heart monitor filtered intermittently through the persistent ringing in his ears. The hand he held was still and stained with blood from the various smaller wounds peppering the owner’s back. _Of course this would be the time the bomber chooses to include random bits of metal with his bomb._ The ambulance slowed to a stop as Don’s eyelids crept open.

“Excuse me, sir, but you’ll need to let go of his hand so we can bring him through to the ER.”

Startled out of his thoughts, Charlie nodded and gave the hand in his grasp one more gentle squeeze before watching the medics rush his brother’s stretcher through the doors of the emergency room.  

**Author's Note:**

> ...it kind of followed the prompt? I guess? A little bit? If you couldn't tell, I've never done this sort of thing before. Constructive criticism and advice would be very welcome!


End file.
